Pearlcasts
As we review 2025, the temptation is to look for neat summaries and settled conclusions.
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27 January 2026
Trump fills the great Albo silence
Australia’s leaders are trying to avoid becoming a target in a harsher, more coercive world. But silence and caution can’t substitute for strategy – or for honest leadership that levels with the public.
27 January 2026
Australia’s crisis debate is too small for the problems we face
Australia’s post-Bondi debate has fixated on labels and symbolism instead of causes and capacity. What Australia needs now is a bigger frame – and stronger democratic protection against social breakdown.
27 January 2026
Trump’s Greenland grab is part of a new space race – and the stakes are getting higher
Trump’s shifting rhetoric on Greenland masks a consistent strategic goal – control of a key Arctic location that underpins US space surveillance and military reach.
27 January 2026
It's time to measure what matters: actual emissions
Net zero targets are increasingly being met through offsets and land-sector accounting rather than real cuts to fossil fuel emissions. The result is climate progress on paper, while pollution continues in practice.
27 January 2026
Australia’s flood management has improved. It’s still not good enough
Australia has made big strides in flood warnings, levees and planning rules – but too often the message still doesn’t land. The next step is practical community engagement that builds real understanding, trust and safer decisions.
26 January 2026
Trump, Greenland and Australia’s alliance reality check
Trump’s behaviour towards Greenland is a warning sign for alliances, values and Western credibility. Australia may need to weigh ANZUS more hard-headedly and build greater strategic autonomy.
26 January 2026
Reflections of an Arab Australian on the new 'hate speech' laws
Australia’s new hate speech laws are landing in a climate of deep mistrust and unequal public empathy. When grief, protest and solidarity are treated as threats, social cohesion becomes a hollow promise, Sawsan Madina writes.
26 January 2026
From international law to loyalty and deals: Trump’s Board of Peace play
The Trump-led Board of Peace points to a shift away from international law and multilateral institutions toward a system built on loyalty, coercion and financial leverage.
26 January 2026
Beyond the ruptured alliance: an outline for Plan B
Australia’s alliance with the United States is no longer reliable, and clinging to it now risks Australia’s interests and values. The case for a deliberate, staged Plan B begins with strategic autonomy – and an overdue reckoning with extended nuclear deterrence.
26 January 2026
Message from the (acting) Editor
They say ‘start as you mean to go on’, and if that’s true, anyone hoping the new year would bring in peace, cooperation and kindness might now be wondering if we can wind the clock back to 1 January and give it another go.
25 January 2026
Trump’s 'Peace Board' is imperialism in a new suit
Trump’s proposed “Board of Peace” is framed as a peace initiative, but it centralises authority, sidelines the vulnerable and rewards coercion. Australia should reject it rather than lend it legitimacy.
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Latest on Palestine and Israel
26 January 2026
From international law to loyalty and deals: Trump’s Board of Peace play
The Trump-led Board of Peace points to a shift away from international law and multilateral institutions toward a system built on loyalty, coercion and financial leverage.
24 January 2026
Cultural “cohesion” becomes censorship, and a festival falls apart
Adelaide Writer’s Week was derailed after the withdrawal of an invited speaker, triggering mass author withdrawals and a board resignation. The episode raises hard questions about free speech, institutional courage, and the politics of Israel and Gaza in Australia’s cultural life.
23 January 2026
Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny – and this one ticks every box
A sweeping new bill to combat antisemitism, hate and extremism was rushed through federal parliament this week with minimal scrutiny and major rule-of-law flaws. Its vague definitions, retrospective reach and expanded executive powers risk undermining rights, due process and democratic accountability.
20 January 2026
The rules are breaking – and the world is watching
The abduction of Venezuela’s president signals a world where power is replacing law, and impunity is setting the pace.
18 January 2026
Best of 2025 - Gaza’s economy has collapsed beyond recognition
Gaza’s economy, society and basic infrastructure have been almost entirely wiped out. With 90 per cent of people displaced, food systems destroyed and schools and hospitals in ruins, reconstruction is becoming harder by the day.
16 January 2026
Banning slogans won’t build social cohesion
After Bondi, New South Wales politicians want to ban words and slogans. But rushed laws could punish political speech, not protect the public.
16 January 2026
Iran in the vortex: what's really happening
As protests unfold in Iran, Israeli and US figures openly talk of regime collapse. Foreign interference risks worsening violence and derailing change from within.
16 January 2026
Best of 2025 - The boy who cried antisemitism
For two years, we’ve been told Australia is drowning in antisemitism. Every protest for Palestinian human rights, every mural, every chant criticising Israel has been hauled up as “evidence.”
Israel's war against Gaza
Media coverage of the war in Gaza since October 2023 has spread a series of lies propagated by Israel and the United States. This publication presents information, analysis, clarification, views and perspectives largely unavailable in mainstream media in Australia and elsewhere.
Download the PDFLatest on China
21 January 2026
The US is powerless to push China out of Latin America
Trump’s move on Venezuela signals a wider push to squeeze China out of Latin America. But Beijing’s trade, investment and infrastructure ties may prove hard to unwind.
20 January 2026
Can Washington still strike a grand bargain with Beijing?
A prominent Chinese academic argues the conditions are right for a US–China “grand bargain”. But recent events in Venezuela and the Middle East raise hard questions about what kind of America China is dealing with.
17 January 2026
Best of 2025 - Democracies good, China bad – and history not required
Japan and China both have legitimate security concerns. But an informed debate needs major media outlets to stop systematically erasing the historical context that shapes how the region understands current events.
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Latest letters to the editor
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Tony Simons — Balmain NSW
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John Curr — MANLY
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